My friend and mentor David Halperin called me at the end of the Fall term last year to ask if I would be interested in working on a proposal for a cluster hire in HIV/AIDS prevention studies at the University of Michigan. He had just come from dinner with Valerie Traub -- chair of Women's Studies at UM -- and they had been talking about ways to hire new faculty who study sexuality. President Coleman, it turns out, has just launched a 5-year initiative to hire 100 new (junior) faculty in interdisciplinary areas. This seemed like a fantastic opportunity to seek out funds for sexuality studies at UM!

I eagerly signed on, and spent a month or so in the Spring drafting a short proposal that went to the Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts -- who would then vet all the proposals from LSA and decide which ones would move forward to the President's Office. We were thrilled a few months ago to find out that the Dean had selected our proposal to move forward for the President's review! And just today, Traub sent out an e-mail to the Women's Studies community announcing that it has been officially approved by the President of the University of Michigan!

What this means is that, in the next year or two, five new faculty at UM will be hired who do work on HIV/AIDS. One full time junior faculty hire will come on board in each of the following departments Women's Studies, Anthropology, Psychology, Nursing, and Ob/Gyn. This is incredible! And to think, I had a hand in this process! Wew-hew!